Kevin McDonald is a retired scientist from Dairy NZ with over 50 years’ experience in systems research and he joins Emma-Louise Coffey on this week’s Dairy Edge podcast to give his insights and analysis of the New Zealand dairy sector along with key learnings for Irish farmers.  
 
Kevin traces the evolution of the New Zealand dairy sector back to the 1930s and 1940s but says the big change came in the mid 1990s when big dairy farms expanded into the South Island.
 
Smaller farms were traditionally in the North Island while the South Island farms that have come into dairying in the last 20 years were traditionally from much bigger sheep farms.  Cow numbers increased from 3 million to 5 million cows, though irrigation has been the main challenge, for farmers in the South Island especially.
 
Kevin also discusses other issues and challenges for farmers in New Zealand from labour to farm size and points out that, in contrast to Ireland’s more traditional farmers, they are more willing to change, buy new farms and move on.
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